Dr Martin Stephen is the educational director of GEMS UK and was formerly the High Master of St Paul's from 2004 to 2011. He was previously High Master of Manchester Grammar School and headmaster of The Perse School. He has written several academic works and is the author of the Henry Gresham historical crime thriller series.

Exams scandal: a self-inflicted wound that leaves young people with nothing to believe in

When I learned of today's Telegraph investigation, which alleges that teachers have in effect been able to buy privileged information about public examinations, my first reaction was sadness. I'm a huge fan of investigative journalism: it's one of the few things that can penetrate the screens that power, wealth and privilege can erect around themselves. Yet I felt a similar sadness about the revelations regarding MPs' expenses.

Why sadness? I'm not sure our young people have been left with much to believe in. We need to have faith in public institutions. We've lost it in our politicians, our bankers and seem to be losing it in our police. Now it's the examination system. If that's the case for public exams it's a self-inflicted wound. We've let public exams morph from university-led extensions of teaching and learning into quasi-autonomous, profit-driven businesses. Time for change. We simply can't erode our young people's faith in the exams we make them sit.